Red Square

A common place one has to visit in Moscow.

This is a big hughe place. You may also buy some ice cream near that place, also in Winter!

I have this obsession with eventually seeing the big three dead socialist leaders: Lenin, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh. It fascinates me that these people are considered to have been so instrumental to their countries that they will actually PUBLICLY DISPLAY THEIR DEAD BODIES.

Uncle Ho is done. I’ve been to Beijing three times, but never quite managed to see the Chairman, but I plan on that happening next time I go to China (hopefully, next summer).

So, the only one left for an unknown time in the future is Lenin.

The square itself is only open twice a week. Make sure you go on a day its open. Otherwise, you cant even walk around the edge. Worse than that, I couldnt even go a block away and walk around it that way to get to the other side. Oddly enough, Lenin’s tomb is not open the days the square is open, but it is open the other days.

And so it is.

I have wanted to go to Russia from when I was very young. My dad even offered to pay for me when I was maybe 13 years old. I think he was convinced that once I saw the “evil empire” up close, I’d renounce my interest in the country. The Soviet Union fell some years later, and I sort of regretted not taking him up on his offer because I would have been able to see the country in the final years of its occupation by Stalinist fools – assuming I could have even gotten past the airport. We lived overseas in the middle east, so it wasn’t particularly far – compared to the States. Now, I wonder if I’ll ever make it over there – married with children and all.

A panorama of many of Russia’s greatest hits.

To stand by Lenins tomb, to witness the austerity of the last days of the failing soviet regime, to be in a city that history echoes through the twentieth century and to have a flight booked for Leningrad – all amazing stuff.
They sell ice cream in -25 degrees, it’s easy, you dont need a fridge!

I was in Moscow – 10 days before the revolution – what a coincidence!

I wish I had more time to visit